Are Your Consumer Insights Actually Insightful?
The reason our stories, messaging and marketing fall flat is that the people we want to serve are not motivated by our need to be seen, to be heard or to close a sale. People — your audience, customers and clients — are motivated by their need to be seen, heard and understood.
— Bernadette Jiwa¹
Companies spend millions of dollars on consumer insights.
But most don’t value true insights. Insights should tell you something new. They should change the way you think.
Yet, the “insights” that most companies reward are predictable results instead of game changers.²
They value “insights” that confirm what they’re already doing. At best, they want “insights” that only slightly modify what they’re already doing.
But are these “insights” really insightful?
In a predictability-driven world, companies value numbers over understanding. As long as customers behave in a way that the companies can calculate, companies put little value on why customers behave that way. And companies behave this way even if understanding why would open up game-changing opportunities.
Models of behavior that are good enough trump models that have the potential to radically alter the business.
